Emma's Portfolio

Volleyball in PE reflection

January 20, 2026 /

What did you learn?

I learned how to serve, spike and bump.

Favorite: bump

How did you improve?

I improved by playing games with different people, bumping into a wall, and working independently by a net.

What was good about the unit?

The fact that people who are very good at volleyball were split into a group and people who were very bad were mainly put with other people who were at about the same skill level.

What challenges did you face?

When I served, my hand would move with the other hand that was dropping the ball.

Are you looking forward to this unit next year? Why?

No, because in my opinion, volleyball is boring and is very frustrating to play, especially when you have competitions, and you bring your team down.

Badminton in PE

January 20, 2026 /

What did you learn?

I learned different types of serves, smashes, drops etc. My favorite? Smashes.

How did you improve?

I improved by learning while doing games with my classmates. I also improved by getting a lot of exercise while beating other people up on points or getting beaten up by other people by points.

What was good about the unit?

That I get to play with different people of different genders throughout our class, and that I got to play some other sport that uses a racket except tennis.

What challenges did you face?

One challenge that I faced was the fact that I was losing to a beginner in badminton. (According to my teacher) I was so hyped up and ready to beat him up after that, that after almost 180 or so back’s and forth’s, I won him by 19 points.

Are you looking forward to this unit next year? Why?

Yes, because I could have more chances to possibly beat more people up (or get beaten up by other people) again.

Advisory “Goal” Semester 1 Reflection

January 20, 2026 /

What did I do?

I made a goal to decrease the amount of time I was spending on my electronic devices. I can measure this by looking at my weekly average screen time and my daily average screen time. This goal is realistic because I’ve succeeded before when my parents helped me achieve something similar to this.

What did I learn?

I learned that without someone else’s help, it is harder for me to accomplish goals as fast. I didn’t learn any goal-setting skills, though.

What worked?

Going on vacation or finding crafts that are fun to do can decrease the amount of time I spent on my screens/ electronic devices by 2-3 hours! This really works for me: to find something that is fun to do and doesn’t include the internet or any electronic devices.

What did not work?

When I’m bored, I start to get back onto my screen’s. Especially when I’m on vacation, and I’m on some kind of transport, I get bored very quickly. this causes me to get on my phone and start scrolling until one of my parents starts screaming at me/ snatches away my phone.

Personal relevance

This experience is personally relevant to me because even though other people helped me through some of the processes, it was still mostly me who did the tracking, timing and controlling. It also helped me decrease my screen use average from 6+ hours to less than 5 hours!

Language Arts Dystopian Fiction Unit

December 16, 2025 /

What did I do?

I learned about dystopian fiction by reading “The giver” and writing academic paragraphs that respond to the questions about the text.

What did I learn?

I learned about writing academic paragraphs, building vocabulary, doing academic discussions, using transition words in commonlit, and reading comprehension.

What worked?

I feel like that I have a better level on reading comprehension in commonlit. We have commonlit as homework for different chapters, and we have to answer many questions about the chapter(s) we just read. We also have to write academic paragraphs to answer questions.

What did not work?

I had many assignments that were overdue when I did them. I tend to forget about my homework very often, doing them only when the teacher reminded me. i plan to try to do my homework on time after the break.

Personal relevance

I have always had a slightly lower test score on reading comprehension, so i think more practice on my weakness can maybe help my future SAT’s or MAP’s. And, after I learned all the ways you can analyze text to get a very precise look at things, when I read, I notice more details about the plots.

the book we read:

Rollercoaster project

December 15, 2025 /

What We Did:

We started by completing an investigation to determine the relationship between potential energy and height. We also built a model in the classroom to run tests and fill out our first ever lab report! Lastly, we wrote a conclusion using a CER format!

My movie:

My Movie.mp4

Ötzi end of unit reflection 

November 27, 2025 /

What did I work on? 

We worked on observations, inferences, and wonderings. We also worked on a CER paragraph to show our learning. After we got our role in court, we worked on open and closed questions. (We also worked on that previously). 

What did I learn? 

I learned about Why we should care about the past, and we also learned about the death reason, health problems, information about tools etc. About Ötzi the iceman. After that we learned about court and basic information about our trial. 

What worked well? 

I am proud of how I was more focused in class than my normal concentration level in social studies. I also felt like I participated more in conversations and I also answered more questions. As a court reporter, I felt like I was more focused in my job, instead of chatting with my peers. 

What did not work? 

I think I can improve on being more efficient and happier doing homework for our trial.  Also, I can be more efficient when doing tasks. I also noticed how I wasn’t serious enough when doing things. And sometimes I might distract someone a little. 

Personal relevance 

I think this unit helped me develop my skill of understanding and persuading. When I feel like class is boring, I want to do other things. But I tell myself that I am missing work, and I keep going. I also loved interviewing other people and getting their opinion and including it in a newspaper. This helped me develop my social skills. 

one of our fellow lawyers (2)

Math Bake sale

November 26, 2025 /

What did we do?

We did a project where we had to bake and calculate different amounts to see the profit, income, outflow etc.

what did we learn?

We learned how to calculate the batch cost using epermarket, the serving cost using a standard algorithm/ a equation. We also had to find a recipe, make it in our free time and sell our baked goods for 2 hours in a dome thing.

what worked?

How me and my mom cooperated to solve the problem of our group not having time to bake the goods (since I misunderstood the time the bake sale was gonna happen). And how we sold out before the bake sale ended.

What did not work?

our price could’ve been a bit higher, since we only inherited ¥0.33 per person after we sold out. (That happened because half of our cookies broke, so we had to sell them for cheap.

Personal relevance

I got another experience of being a shop owner, after my last one at IF. I feel like my selling skills could improve more with more practice. And since this time I didn’t have much preparation as I did in IF, it challenged my skill of selling and getting customers here.

Egg Car

November 12, 2025 /

What Did I do?

The criteria was to create a car that can protect an egg from a high ramp (prevent it from cracking). The constraints were that we could only use 3 sheets of paper and a meter of tape. Additionally, we only had 1 and a half classes to complete it.

What Did I learn?

Newton’s first law (Inertia) could be seen in the egg car experiment when the car hits the brick and it stops, the egg wants to move forward. The third law was seen in the experiment when the car goes down the ramp and it hits the brick, the brick pushes back with a equal and opposite force.

What Worked?

We made a container-like box to hold the egg inside, making the bottom and front very sturdy, do that the egg couldn’t move a lot. We also made a airbag in the front (paper scraps) to prevent the egg from enduring too much damage.

What did not work?

we could have made the box and the wheel farther apart, so that we didn’t have to take the rubber cover off the tires. And we could have made the car a little bit shorter, because it was too risky to be lingering at the edges of the length limit.

Personal Relevance

I know about the safety cell- a cell like container that holds the human inside the car. I also know about the crumple zone- which my group added to our car so that the crash wouldn’t be too severe. There is also an airbag (I knew this before but now I know more about it). The airbag is actually very hard to construct in a real car. It has to jump out at the right time and has to provide enough protection to the human (or in this case, the egg).

our project:

Science Balloon car project

November 4, 2025 /

What did I do?

The Balloon car was built using a balloon, straws, a plate, and a wheel and axle. We used it to learn about Newtons laws and force and design.

Newton’s laws

Newton’s 1st law says a object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted on by an unbalanced force. We see this law in action when you let go of the balloon, the car takes a moment to start moving. This means the car has a resistance to change.

Newton’s 2nd law says The more mass an object takes up, the more force needed to move it. (F=ma) We see this law in action when the more weights added to the car, it makes it slower and go less far.

Newton’s 3rd law says every action has an equal, opposite reaction. We can see this law in action when one force is the air coming out of the balloon and the opposite reaction is the balloon car moving in the opposite direction.

What worked well?

The race worked well because me and my partner thought we would lose to really good team but, we actually won! We had to fix the car in the last second because it was falling apart. We were also trying to fix it once other people started racing it.

What Did not work?

It was a struggle when our car started breaking. Like when I added way too much hot glue on the plate and it melted completely. And when our straw fell off and we only had 2 minutes to fix it. To solve these problems first, I used cardboard under the plate and waited for it to dry, and it actually made a cool shape in the front. And second, me and my partner made a last minute resort of taping it on with masking tape.

Personal relevance

the balloon car was like a delicate plate. In the real world, when I touched the balloon car a little too hard, it broke.

I see Newton’s 2nd law when a load a suitcase up with too much stuff and I can barely push it.

It is important to know these laws because it helps me remind me to put on my seatbelt.

example of a balloon car

language arts: Creative writing reflection

November 3, 2025 /

What are we doing? 

Writing a fictional story based on a theme that matters to me.

What are we learning? 

Theme (my purpose for writing this story, my message to readers)

Character Development (creating believable characters with positive & negative traits)

Plot (the sequence of events in my story; Western and Eastern approaches to storytelling)

Setting (the world that I create for my story)

What’s Working:

What story elements did you enjoy planning and writing? I enjoyed making characters for my story, and setting up all their quirks and traits because I can make their personalities whatever I want them to be.

What elements of my story are you proud of? I’m proud of how I explained every important scene very intricately

How did you get the idea for your story? I really just winged it. I didn’t have much thought in what I would choose for the plot.

The Best Line from My Story: I really don’t have one, l like every line.

Areas for Growth:

What story elements were challenging to plan and write? It was challenging to write in and incorporate all

How did you deal with these challenges?

What is your least favorite part of the story?  Why does it bother you?

Personal Relevance:

How can creative writing help you in real life (even if you’re not planning on becoming an author)? I feel like journaling is a very nice way to express your feelings. And, writing is something almost every job incorporates in some way. So I feel like it is very useful in many places.

Do you enjoy creative writing – would you possibly like to continue using your imagination to tell stories that matter to you? I mean, I don’t really like actually spending a lot of time every day to write, but I think I don’t really like writing that much.

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